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Local butchers: All meat cuts are good if you know what to do with them

Local butchers: All meat cuts are good if you know what to do with them

September 19, 2007|By TIFFANY ARNOLD

It's not the cut of the meat that counts - it's what you do with it.

"Every cut of meat's a good cut for its purpose," says Phil Hott, co-owner of Phil & Jerry's Meats & More in Smithsburg.

Local butchers say you don't have to pay top dollar for top taste if you're open to trying new cuts and different ways of preparing them.

"A lot of it has to do with the preparation," says Bob Holsinger Sr., owner of Holsinger's Meats, a 140-year-old meat shop in Maugansville.

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The most tender, most coveted morsels on a beef carcass - such as the filet mignon or Delmonico - only account for one-fourth of the entire carcass, Holsinger says. It's the reason he says his best fillets sell for between $12 to $13.

"It's basic supply and demand," he says.

But less-expensive substitutions can be made - if you've got the know-how, the butchers say.

Sirloin steaks are always a good start. "They can be used for just about anything," Hott says.

Also, chuck and shoulder roasts "give you more juiciness and tenderness than more expensive roasts," Hott says.

Chuck roast, Holsinger says, can also be cut into steaks, at about $2 to $3 a pound, and are good for braising. The same method can be used for pork shoulders, which fetch around $2 a pound, Holsinger says.

Consumers also have more options at the meat counter, says Janet M. Riley, spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute, a trade association for U.S. meat and poultry suppliers. Thanks to changing social demographics and retailers' ability to better target consumers' tastes, consumers don't have to go with the same old steak.

"We have a different American population than we did before," Riley says. "We're having a huge change in the American demographic, particularly among Hispanics."

Changes in demographics is the reason flank steak, skirt steak and beef tongue have seen a recent surge in popularity, Riley says. These cuts are popular among the growing Hispanic population.

Efrain's Taqueria, a Mexican restaurant in Hagerstown, incorporates flank steak in several of its dishes, says Hannah Esparza, who co-owns Efrain's Taqueria with her husband, Efrain.